CINDY DAY: Does daylight saving time put a spring in your step?

Daylight time was designed to make life more enjoyable based on the premise that we typically spend more awake time in the evenings than in the mornings. - Photo illustration Cindy Day

More light at the end of the day. Many of you love it. For what it’s worth, I prefer the light in the morning, but it’s not up to me.

Whose idea was it anyway? If I had a dime for every time I heard someone say: “it’s for the farmers,” I’d be rich.

Contrary to popular belief, American farmers did not lobby for daylight saving to have more time to work in the fields. The agriculture industry was opposed to the time switch when it was first implemented as a wartime measure on March 31, 1918.

The sun, not the clock, dictated farmers’ schedules, so daylight saving was very disruptive. Farmers had to wait an extra hour for dew to dry off the hay and cows weren’t ready to be milked an hour earlier to meet shipping schedules.

Daylight time was designed to make life more enjoyable based on the premise that we typically spend more awake time in the evenings than in the mornings.

I don’t love it, but I make the necessary changes to the clocks before going to bed on Saturday and that’s about it. It’s not quite that easy for some. From experience, I can tell you that on the farm, it’s less about digital clocks and more about internal ones.

So, they ease the girls into it.

Every spring change, Dad and Ronnie adjust the milking times for the cows in 30-minute increments. Normally, the morning milking is at 5:30 a.m. If they were to milk the cows at 5:30 Sunday morning, it would only be 4:30 for the cows. To transition to the new time, they will move the morning milk time to 6 a.m. for a few days and then 5:30 a.m.

In the fall, when clocks are turned back an hour, the cows' adjustment is more difficult – the cows are holding that milk for an extra hour, so you can run into some health problems.

Springing ahead and falling back is not simple for everyone and, according to an unscientific poll on my Facebook page, it’s not embraced by most either.

The poll went up March 6 and by March 8 3,200 people voted:

Results: 1,800 said there was no need for time change; 1,300 said they love to spring ahead!

Before I sign off I have to mention a pet peeve of mine. Before the weekend is out, we’ll have heard the phrase “Daylight Savings Time” far too often. The word “saving” acts as part of an adjective rather than a verb, the singular is grammatically correct.